Sign up for fast internet

Timaru has an opportunity to race up the leaderboard in its campaign to get the fastest internet in New Zealand.

The town that gets the most signups on the website gigatown.co.nz from this Thursday, until midnight tonight, will win 75,000 points.

In addition, if Timaru doubles its supporters during the promotion it will receive a bonus of 25,000 points.

Gigatown, a promotion led by fibre-optic provider Chorus, pits towns against one another for the chance of getting broadband speeds up to one gigabit per second (1Gbps). Timaru is seventh and winning the interim competition could move the town into third place, Aoraki Business Development and Tourism (ADBT) business manager Sam Callander said.

ADBT is behind the push to get ahead on the scoreboard.

"We need at least 500 more by Tuesday at midnight to guarantee we double our signup for bonus points of 25,000," Mr Callander said.

Chief executive Wendy Smith said the competition was an unprecedented opportunity to promote Timaru online, e and become the first town in the southern hemisphere to access a 1Gbps internet connection.